Thank you .
We're getting increasingly used to seeing you here at meetings of the committee. I must confess that I have some trouble with the problems that crop up again and again in every chapter. For me, it's like déjà-vu. When we look at the problems one at a time and start to accumulate all the recommendations you've made in the past, it looks as though things are not going so well in some of the departments among those that were examined.
Chapter 4 talks about the Canada Revenue Agency. When you did your last audits, you drew attention to some major issues within this department respecting the management of international transactions. There is a lack of commitment with regard to tax havens. Now the government is allowing corporations to leave balances on deposit, on which it pays higher interest. Fifty corporations paid over two-thirds of these deposits.
Have you noticed an increase in the number of corporations taking advantage of this provision? According to your comments, the departments tried to sort things out for 2007-2008. Can you give some idea where these corporations come from? What are these corporations? These are pretty significant amounts of money; mention is made of $4 billion. In a time of economic slowdown, in tough economic times, I have a hard time understanding why a company would leave its money on deposit instead of using it and investing it.